Exploiting nodes symmetries to control synchronization and consensus patterns in multiagent systems

TL;DR

This paper introduces a systematic method to design distributed controllers for multiagent systems by exploiting node symmetries, enabling desired synchronization and consensus patterns across networked agents.

Contribution

It provides new conditions and a methodology to control synchronization patterns in multiagent networks using node symmetries, advancing the design of distributed controllers.

Findings

Conditions for achieving specific synchronization patterns

Methodology for designing distributed controllers

Ability to cluster nodes with different synchronized behaviors

Abstract

We present new conditions to obtain synchronization and consensus patterns in complex network systems. The key idea is to exploit symmetries of the nodes' vector fields to induce a desired synchronization/consensus pattern, where nodes are clustered in different groups each converging towards a different synchronized evolution. We show that the new conditions we present offer a systematic methodology to design a distributed network controller able to drive a network of interest towards a desired synchronization/consensus pattern.